“Not This Week, Maybe Next”: Understanding the Working of Legal Services Provided to Children in Conflict with the Law

Legal services for children in the juvenile justice system are presently confined to assigning them with legal representation, without any additional support. This chapter attempts to present the gap between the legal framework and the effectiveness of the existing legal services available to children in conflict with the law. It also demonstrates that application of the principles embodied in the Indian legal framework—such as best interest of the child and child participation—requires that the scope of legal services must evolve to encompass a host of responsibilities that include coordinating with the child’s family, advocating with the state agencies for progressive interpretation of the law, among others. While the existing application of legal aid to children in the system undermines these aspects as being merely tangential or auxiliary to legal representation, often even obscuring them, these ‘supporting services’ must be recognized at par with legal representation, and hence, institutionalized. This chapter emerges from a qualitative study conducted by Centre for Child and the Law, National Law School of India University (CCL-NLSIU), Bengaluru. In the process of enabling access to justice for children in the Juvenile Justice System, a team of lawyers navigate the complexities and assess the role of different actors including legal services providers—government-appointed lawyers, pro bono and child rights lawyers, and private lawyers, as well other actors including the Juvenile Justice Board, guardians and family. A close reading of the system has been carried out to detail the role of the lawyer that is attentive to both, the dual vulnerability of these children and the distinct nature of their legal inquiry. The site of inquiry is one of the 16 Observation Homes (OH) situated in a southern Indian state. The OH selected for this study is only for boys, and is occupied by boys apprehended in the district where the OH is situated, as well as those from neighboring districts. Various stages of the process: apprehension, first production and so on have been revisited to reflect on the challenges; and issues such as gaps in the working of legal service providers, role of the guardian(s) and family, child participation, non-appearance of children and pleading guilty, etc. have been discussed in detail. The chapter also explores the theoretical framework for the role of the lawyer in the juvenile justice system.